Improvement in reducing hemp, flax



UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

REBEOOA, SHERWOOD, OF FORT EDWARD, NEW YORK.

IMPROVEMENT IN REDUCING HEMP, FLAX. &c., TO A FIBRO US CONDITION.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 40,577, dated November10, 1863.

To all whom it may concern:

, Be it known that I, REBECGA SHERWOOD, of the town of Fort Edward, inthe county of \Vashington and State of New York, have invented certainnew and useful improvements in the reducing of hemp, grass, flax, straw,and other fibrous substances to a textile fiber for the purpose ofmaking textile fabrics, felt,

' cloth, and textile paper for shirt-bosoms, &c.,

also all kinds of paper, on being reduced to a textile pulp, of whichthe following is a specification.

I use two tubs or pans holding about one thousand gallons each, forconvenience about seven feet in diameter and about four feet deep; also,a pan holding about two thousand gallons convenient to the boiler.

In my process for producing hemp, flax, grass, straw, and other fibroussubstances of textile fiber I make a solution as follows: To aboutfifteetr hundred gallons of water I add about five hundred andseventy-five pounds of soda-ash or its equivalent of pure caustic soda.Then I add abouttwenty pounds of borax, boron, or boracic acid or theirequivalents. I then dissolve about eight pounds of rosin or pitch ortheir equivalents in about ten pounds of soda-ash or potash in one pailof water; then add them to the solution. It is then ready to add toabout one ton of any substance which I wish to reduce to a textilefiber. The usual time of boiling is from three to six hours. When thesolution is about two-thirds boiled (more or less) I sometimes draw offthe whole or part of the liquor before I add, by means of a force-pump,(if in a close boiler,) a solution made of about fifty pounds of alumand about one hundred and twenty gallons of water. I sometimes use agreater or less quantity of the alum solution. The hemp and flax needless than the other fibrous substances. I sometimes omit the rosin anduse coal-oils or their fluids instead. I use a soapy solution formed bymeans of soap with any of the above-named ingredients. When I wish tomake a more textile pulp for paper-say about two barrels of soap orcoal-oils, or their fluids combined I sometimes use, instead of soap toform my soapy solution of, with my other ingredients above mentioned,crude or refined coal-oils, or fluids made from them, separate orcombined, to form my soapy solutions of.

I do not confine myself to the quantities of the various ingredientsused in the above solutions, but vary them according to the fiber I maywish to make. The solutions may be weaker for hemp or flax than mostother fibrous substances-say about one-eighth to one-third less instrength. When I wish to partly or wholly bleach my textile fabric forcloth,feltin g, or paper in a rotary boiler after the straw has partlygone through with textiling, I add from one hundred to one hundred andfifty pounds of chloride of lime, in addition to the alum or itsequivalent to about five hundred gallons of water. I sometimes cleansethe straw after it is boiled in the first solution by means of waterbefore I add the alum. I sometimes boil the fiber in an alum solution ashort time before adding the chloride of lime. I sometimes add fromtwelve to sixteen pounds of oil of vitriol. As the heat in the boilerbegins to cause the different ingredients to mingle together and actchemically with each other then the viscons and oleaginous substancescontained in the ditl'erent fibrous substances begin to unite and form akind of mineral, unctuous, mucilaginous, or soapy solution, whichassists in protecting the finer portions of the fiber or othersubstances, while the coarser portions are being dissolved to a textilefiber.

I do notintend to limit myself to the use of a rotary air-tight boileralone, but may use either such a boiler or a fixed air-tight boiler withan arrangement by a wheel or otherwise for imparting a rotary motion toits contents without permitting the escape of the gases within, myobject being to confine the gases arising from the heated solution andto use them for bleaching the fiber while rotating themass.

What I claim as my invention, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

1. The use of the solutions combined, as described, for the purpose ofreducing hemp, flax, grass, straw, and other fibrous substances to atextile fiber for the manufacture of textile fabrics and pulp for paper,substantially as described.

2. The use of coal-oil, naphtha, benzine, or other liquid hydrocarbon,either alone or combined with alkaline or soapy solutions, for thepurpose of reducing hemp, flax, grass, straw, and other fibroussubstances to a textile fiber for the manufacture of textile fabrics orfor pulp for all kinds of paper, substantially as described.

REBEGOA SHERWOOD. Witnesses:

J. K. PIXLEY, HENRY TEFFT.

